The Island (1980)

I saw only the last two thirds of this clunker and it was enough. How Michael Caine could be associated with this film is hard to understand. The only memorable scene shows him mowing down all the pirates with the machine gun, thereby obtaining revenge for the massacre of the Coast Guard crew. Finally, he burns up David Warner with a flare pistol which anybody would guess would happen. David Warner works at playing a bad guy, but was much better at it in TITANIC. Caine and Warner are passable, but the plot, the direction, the other actors and action, aren't worth discussing. The more I think about it, I feel I over rated the movie.

Journalist Blair Maynard (an admirably since performance by Michael Caine) and his bratty son Justin (the supremely annoying and unlikable Jeffrey Frank) stumble across a vicious gang of inbred modern-day pirates led by the ruthless John David Nau (David Warner in fine sinister form) living on a remote Caribbean island.Director Michael Ritchie, working from an absurd script by Peter Benchley, treats the delightfully bonkers and preposterous premise with general misguided seriousness while also delivering several jolting bits of nasty gore and inspired moments of dark humor (the sidesplitting highlight occurs when one guy on a schooner tries to fend off the pirates by using karate against them!). The cast play the loopy material with commendable conviction: Angela Punch McGregor keeps her dignity as feisty token fertile female Beth, Frank Middlemass contributes a witty turn as sarcastic and misanthropic anthropologist Windsor, Dudley Sutton has a ball as the unhinged Dr. Brazil, and Brad Sullivan pops up in a funny small part as low-rent airplane pilot Stark. Henri Decae's lush widescreen cinematography provides an impressive sumptuous look. Ennio Morricone's jaunty and rousing score hits the stirring spot. A gloriously ludicrous pip.

Blair Maynard, seeking to reconnect with his young son Justin, takes him on a Caribbean cruise to research Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Unfortunately, they discover an explanation - a lost band of descendants of 17th century pirates who take Blair into slavery as a breeding source of fresh genes, while Justin is brainwashed into becoming the "son" of the pirate leader.After Jaws became a massive-selling book and then a box office movie smash, Peter Benchley was flavour of the month for a while. The Deep followed, less successfully, and then The Island, which more or less put paid to Benchley's career as a source of movie ideas.It's not entirely clear why. The idea is not a bad one and, in Michael Caine as Blair and David Warner as the pirate leader, it has two potentially good leads (albeit Caine was going through his phase of taking any part as long as there was a decent pay cheque attached to it).Although the film is a fairly good adaptation of the book, it is no fun at all. It is very violent and purports to be adult (as was the book) but doesn't feel credible. Had it been played as a family-oriented adventure rather than almost-horror, it might have worked better.

A journalist (Michael Caine) and his son embark on a trip to investigate a series of strange disappearances in the Caribbean. Turns out the ships have been hijacked by a colony of inbred pirates (led by David Warner). Our heroes get captured and are tortured by the insane bunch, and even get to witness first hand their ruthless battle for greed and survival.After a jumbled and woefully written opening, the late Michael Ritchie's pirate thriller finds its feet when it arrives on the titular location. From there, some well staged, almost tongue in cheek set pieces involving violent pirate raids on various ships, set to a Ennio Morricone score that goes from Williams-like whimsical, akin to an old Hollywood swashbuckling score. We also have decent performances from its adequate cast, especially the supporting cast who get into the wacky & surreal mix of roles as the mad pirates, as well as a rather imposing Warner as their bloodthirsty leader. Caine and the kid actor are fine, but this was sadly during his 'paycheck' era so it falls short of some of his finer hours.Indeed, this is a project that was not the finest hour of many; aside from Caine, the opening is very poorly paced, directed and written, with incredibly stiff, obvious dialogue that sags so much it becomes nigh-unbearable, and it feels like it takes an eternity for the pirates to make a show after the little teaser at the very start. Seriously, it's a slog and I imagine would be enough to turn off less generous viewers. However, that second, more satirical half (playing to Ritchie's strengths) did give me enough smiles to come out satisfied. Genre enthusiasts only, really.